>> this is "bbc world news america." >> funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation, newman's own foundation, giving all profits to charity and pursuing the common good for over 30 years, and union bank. >> at union bank, our relationship managers work hard to know your business. offering specialized solutions and capital to help you meet your growth objectives. we offer expertise and tailored

solutions for small businesses and major corporations. what can we do for you? >> and now, "bbc world news america." >> this is "bbc world news america." reporting from washington, i am your anchor. the u.n. says north korean leader kim jong-un could face trial for crimes against humanity. the charismaticics matteo renzi is tapped to be the next leader of italy. can he fix the ailing economy. and a machine with the mind of n ant. engineers are looking to machines to help them.

>> welcome to our viewers on public television in america and around the globe. united nations investigators accuse north korea's government today of orchestrating widespread abuses of civilians similar to those of the nazi's in world war ii, ranging from systemic executions to mass starvations. the report warned that leader kim jong-un may be held directly i countable for the crimes. north korea has categorically rejected the claims. here is our coverage. >> what lies behind this facade in north korea? these students marching loyal to the regime, filmed at an elite university by the bbc resemi-. the evidence of what goes on in

north korea's prisons is shadow why and second-hand like they images of the notorious prison camp. but the u.n. says atrocity described by the defectors are as shocks as what the nazi's did. >> women forced to drawn a baby in a bucket. prisoners forced to live on mice and snakes and grass. stories of real horror. that is what stands out, the afront that this is happening in our world today. >> some ex-prisoners drew pictures of the nightmare they lived through. two men weeping in agony in a skeletal mber detainees devouring wild animals. another described a public execution he witnessed. >> the first puts hits the head and the brain and blood

splatters. people scream in horror. it is so gruesome, you instinctively close your eyes. you cannot sleep after witnessing it. >> this hard-hitting u.n. report is a catalog of heroing details collected from hundreds of witnesses. it accuses north korea of crimes against humanity ranging from abduction and torture to rain and starvation and what is termed systemic sternum nation. it calls the gravity and the scale of alleged abuses unparalleled in the contemporary world and warns the leader, kim jong-un, may be held personally responsible. all of this will have little impact on north korea's inscrutable young leader, except perhaps making him more belligerent. they dismissed the report as faked by the united states and

its alleys. even if it is impervious, investigators say amassing the evidence is important for the day when it can be acted on. "bbc news." >> and for more on the u.n.'s north korea report, i spoke to bill richardson a short time ago. he is a former ambassador to united nations and envoy to north korea. he joined me from new mexico. people in north korea are being starved to death, burned and buried because they disagree with their government. you know the country well. does the level of persecution surprise you? >> well, this is a very significant report because it is extremely detailed for crimes against humanity. but it's most devastating charge is done by the united nations. we were aware of these reports by human rights groups, by other nations and by individuals, but this is an empaneled human rights effort

by the united nations. this is why it is so devastating and why there is going to have to be some kind of reaction. it's ue is north korea, isolation, it doesn't abide by international norms. what is going to happen next is the issue. >> that is the issue. do you think the security council will refer to north korea to the criminal court as the investigators suggest they should? >> most of the sanctions against north korea have been because they have failed to bide by norms in the nuclear proliferations area, the missile tests and underground efforts. this is new territory. what is going to need to happen is for the five permanent members of the security council , russia, china, the u.s., britain and france, are going to have to agree to either refer it or take some kind of

action, and it is very doubtful that china would agree to this. they probably would veto because they see north korea as part of their territory, their jurisdiction. but the issue may be if canine doesn't do this, perhaps china and other powers, other international bodies, can take this issue and try to make a difference by engaging the north koreans by finding ways to have dialogue with them to try to fix some of these problems. but it is not going to be easy. >> well, kim jong-un was told by u.n. investigators that he personally could be held liable for crimes against humanity. do you think that is just going to heighten his bunker mentality? >> well, we know very little about this young man. he is in his 30's. he is untested. he is obviously having some internal problems with his leadership.

he has executed his uncle. he has demoted a bunch of generals he doesn't consider loyal. there could be, if you look at it in a positive way, some internal pressures on kim jong-un to engage the international community to respond to some of these charges, to try to do something about the economy and the human rights situation. but it is such an isolated unpredictable country. they won't react the normal way. this is why engagement with a regime either by special envoys, either by by f-the-box diplomacy, china, which provides their food, fuel and political support, to pressure them to try to fix some of the terrible problems that the u.n. has outlined. >> this report is so detailed and devastating. will it lead to change in north korea? >> well, possibly.

everyone will probably say no because of the bunker mentality. but there may be some internal forces that say ok, we have to correct this path. we've got to do something to negotiate nuclear weapons reductions. we have to do something about the economy of our people, human rights. people are starving. the economy is not in good shape. it could be a source of internal pressure for those moderates and for those in the regime that might want a shift. we don't know they exist because we know so little about the country. but i have found in my visits that there are some individuals in the government that realize that there has to be some changes. >> governor bill richardson. thank you so much for joining ups in other news, at least eight south korean college students have been reported killed and others injured after a roof collapse.

dozens more are trapped in the building. the news agency said the building had been heavily laden with snow. pakistan has stopped talks after 23 soldiers were killed by dissidents. they said this was and act of revenge. it was a below to peace talks. protestors in ukraine have ended their occupation of kiev city hall. officials have promised to drop charges if they left all government buildings by today. the protests were over the president's decision to ditch an agree with the e.u. in favor of closer ties with russia. in italy today, 39-year-old, matteo renzi was nominated by the president to become the country's youngest ever prime minister. renzi is now tasked with forming a new coalition

government. the ambitious politician currently serves as mayor of florence, but never in parliament. here is our report from rome. >> italy is betting its future on this man. he is young, and he bristles with energy and ambition. today he drove himself to the presidential palace in rome. he is 39 years old and is set to become italy's youngest prime minister. matteo renzi is not even an m.p. he is the mayor of florence, with no experience in government. now he is tasked with running italy. >> i would like to assure the president of the republic, the political parties and above all, the italians who are watching this government crisis that i will devote all the energy, courage and enthusiasm that i am capable of. >> he reeled off an ambitious agenda, constitutional reform by the end of the month, jobs

reform by march. passing is a political outsider, a man who promises to break the caste of old politics, and his lack of experience is part of his political appeal to many italians. matteo renzi's power lies in his being different. some compare him to tony blair. he has an easy smile, but in truth, he is a political unknown. >> he has no alternative but challenging the situation. i'm not sure that he knows how difficult the situation is. >> today there was a small pro protest that yet again italy to an ning yet again unelected prime minister. >> he has unbridaled ambition.

i see it as being for personal gain and not something that will help everyone. >> matteo renzi says he can move seas and mountains. let's try him because italy is in a swamp. >> matteo renzi is expected to move into the prime minister's office later this week. he faces an immense challenge in a country struggling out of recession with youth unemployment at 40%. "bbc news," rome. >> italy's brave new world. now in most of the united states, snow has been the problem this winter. in california, it is a lack of water. the state is suffering the worst drought in 100 years, leaving many farmers and ranchers unable to get the water they need, except al phalpha growers, exporting to china. here is our story.

>> the reservoirs of california have been turning to death. after the driest year on record, the state is suffering an historic drought. >> these dry times, this drought, it has a far-reaching impact. you would have green grass here on the hillsides, anywhere from four to eight inches tall. >> so john has to buy hey. the cost has forced him to sell a fifth of the herd. but in another part of california, the imperial valley's fields are awash with colorado river water. hay.armers here make it is a feed crop for animals, but increasingly, a money-making export. the fastest growing market is china. the hay is impressed into smaller bales, wrapped and loaded into containers.

america's trade imbalance with china means many of these go back empty. filling them with hay makes it cheaper to move hay to bengal. critics say it is like exporting water. >> alfalfa is a very water con surf tiff crop. when you see what is exported, what you see is about 100 billion gallons of water a year just from california. >> and that is a huge amount? >> it is a huge amount, enough for make a million families, a year's supply. >> they have used irrigation in the imperial valley where there is no incentive to conserve water. he makes profit and sees this as the best use of his water. >> the cities use 70% of their water to irrigate allianz and golf courses. talking about inefficiencies, is it more efficient to water

golf courses and allianz or to use a crop and to export it and to create this massive economic engine that drives the country. >> john objects to the cost of hay. that is nothing compared to the resentment we feel when hey is exported overseas when it could stay right here at home and be utilized. we need to start thinking about other things besides making a dollar. >> but money does persuade people to save water. in l.a. there is a subsidy to replace thirsty allianz with drought resistant desert plants. it helps, but urban areas can do more. this is the los angeles river. it is essentially a big drainage canal. when it rains, this fills up with water which flows out to sea. california has to balance the demand of urban using, the environment and agriculture. >> if drought is to become the

new normal, they question the sustainability of those who use water for exports. swaur a finite resource, and they would like to keep it flowing here. "bbc news," california. >> alfalfa to china, incredible. you are watching "bbc world news america." still to come, we will stay with china and look at the building boom there. with a new skyscraper every five days, some say the government has created a bubble that is about to burst. >> there was tremendous tension on an ethiopian airlines flight today when the co-pilot hijacked a plane and flew it to geneva and asked for asylum. he was arrested when the plane was landed, and the passengers were safe. here is franc gardner. an airliner hijacked by the

plane's own co-pilot and rerouted to geneva. the flight to rome was diverted here. flying over italy, the co-pilot waited for the pilot to go to the toilet. then he locked himself in the cockpit and alert the air traffic controller what he was doing. this is the recording. > we need asylum and transferred to the government. >> we are waiting on that information. >> you may hold at present position. >> through the open cockpit window, the hijacker let himself down with a rope and then gave himself up to the swiss authorities. around 200 passengers and crew left the plane unharmed. then the swiss convened a hasty

press conference. >> the co-pilot hijacker was born in 1983. he is of ethiopian origin. his act was motivated by his claim of his safety was threatened in his country and he seeks asylum in switzerland. >> they say no one was in danger. but why the hijacker didn't want to disembark in rome is not clear. he now faces up to 20 years in jail. bbc news." >> one of the biggest questions facing the world economy this year is just how fast china will grow. for the past decade, china's rise has been staggering, making it the second richest country in the world. in the process, chinese firms and local governments have borrowed trillions of dollars. now there are fears the

economic boom could turn into a housing crash. here is our report. >> china, but perhaps not as you recognize it. the first-ever punk back in this city, complete with bag piles. this is a country undergoing massive change, and that transformation accelerated in 2008 when china's government initiated the mother of all lending and investment booms to off set economic shock that we in the west caused with our banking crisis. i had no doubt that their strategy would be the kind of stimulus program they did. i did not imagine one on the scale and scope that they pursued. >> a 400 billion pound stimulus drove a building program on a skylar we haven't seen since egypt's pharos. a new skyscraper every five

days, more than 30 new airports. metro systems under way in 25 cities. over 600,000 miles of railway track and the three longest bridges in the world. it was an investment splurged with trillions of pounds of debt. >> give me an idea of the scale of the lending we have seen since 2008. >> it's off the charts really. most people are aware we have had a credit boom in china, but they don't know the scale. at the beginning of all this in 2008, the chinese banking sector was roughly $10 trillion u.s. dollars in size. now it is on the terms of $24 trillion or $25 trillion. that is equivalent to the entire u.s. commercial banking sector, which took more than a century to build. >> the chinese government knows

debt-fueled investment has to come to an end. >> i think china could do very well if the policy of the growth is transformed to higher value add. you are looking at 4% which is fine. >> or it could mean a fully fledged crash. >> people who are positive on china think they will find a way to grow out of this problem. mathematically there is no way to grow out of the problem when credit is twice as high as the economy and growing twice as fast. >> are you positive about the huge changes that have been here in recent years? it is good, the development? >> i don't think so. it's good for the government, for the officers and for some rich men. some people get power. that is not good for the normal chipes.

>> china has broken so many economic rules with over 30 years of yuss precedented growth, perhaps the lending boom won't be so bad. normally the rules of gravity apply. what goes up must eventually come down. that is our report there on china's building boom and whether it could lead to bust. >> for anyone who has been anticipated a future often seen in science fiction movies with robots waiting on humans, you could be waiting a while. the next generation of robots could be more like smaller creatures. here is our report from chicago. >> this is obviously one who can be relied upon not to step on his partner's feet. >> in the 1950's this is how we imagined robots would be like in the future. but 60 years on, this is how they have turned out. it looks like a toy car, but

actually it is an intelligent robot that can see and learn. it is navigating its way through this obstacle course all on its own. but here is what it is based on. the research team spent several weeks studying it in spain. based on what they learned, this is what they built, a robot that can make its way through rough terrain. >> there is an ant's eye view of the world. the picture is course and rather simplified. even so, it is a lot of visual data, and it has been a complete mystery as to how a creature with a brain the size of a pin head can process that amount of information. >> if you have ever tried to build a ronalt yourself, you can't help but be amazed, looking at a very simple area, how many competencies it has, how compact, powerful and

robust it is. we can't build anything like that. we have a lot to renner. >> in chicago, developers are making robot fish. it uses electric fields like radar to sense its surroundings. in murky waters it could be used to assess damage in oil spills where cameras can't see and too dangerous for divers. >> the fish live in the rivers of the amazon, and those rivers are very murky. as a result, they have had to evolve a different way to sense. >> it seems increasingly robot builders are drawing their inspiration from the animal kingdom. some may say thank goodness. "bbc news," chicago. >> i think i would rather have the robotic servants.

that brings today's close -- show to a close. thanks for watching, see you back here tomorrow. >> make sense of international news at bbc.com/news. >> funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation, newman's own foundation, giving all profits to charity and pursuing the common good for over 30 years, and union bank. we or nearly 150 years, have believed a commercial bank owes its clients strength, stability, security.

so we believe in keeping lending standards high, capital ratios high, credit ratings, high. companies expected it then. companies expect it now. doing right, it's just good business. union bank. >> "bbc world news" was presented by kcet los angeles.

captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: a new study shows more ice melting in the arctic means the world is getting warmer. a day after secretary of state john kerry declared climate change the greatest challenge of our generation. good evening, i'm judy woodruff. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. also ahead tonight, a florida man accused of killing a teenager and wounding four others, is convicted on lesser charges, reopening a national debate about race, self defense and the law. >> woodruff: plus, one state's alternative to medicaid expansion. an arkansas program that uses federal funds to buy private insurance for low-income residents >> the first thing i did was go